6: Writing Feature News
- Page ID
- 282993
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Good feature stories are captivating works of nonfiction that evoke all sorts of emotions from readers. They are news stories that draw power from many of the same news values that drive straight news, but they are not necessarily time-bound. Feature stories do not fit the mold of straight news, nor should they.
Feature news stories leave room for setting the scene creatively, establishing characters, and providing context that usually would not fit in a straight news story.
Feature story writing involves many more creative writing techniques than writing straight news.
This is not to say that newswriters are encouraged to overwrite feature stories. They are not, but in feature stories, writers are free to use more descriptive language, more details about their nonfiction characters and (limited) turns of phrase that would usually not be acceptable in straight news stories.
In feature stories, writers combine their unique experiences and storytelling approaches with trusted story structures and essential techniques to grab readers and hold them.
This section introduces different options for writing feature news leads and includes a few suggested story structures. Some general guidelines applicable across most feature stories are included, but writers should not feel bound by formulas.
This section also includes brief analyses of a few feature news leads and stories to illustrate the aspects of feature writing which may be, more or less, universal.